37 Facts About PW Botha

PW Botha served as the last prime minister of South Africa from 1978 to 1984 and the first executive state president of South Africa from 1984 to 1989.

PW Botha resigned as leader of the ruling National Party in February 1989 after suffering a stroke and six months later was coerced to leave the presidency.

In early 1998, when PW Botha refused to testify at the Mandela government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, he was supported by the far-right Conservative Party, which had earlier contested his rule as the official opposition.

Pieter Willem PW Botha was born on a farm in the Paul Roux district of the Orange Free State Province, the son of Afrikaner parents.

PW Botha initially attended the Paul Roux School and matriculated from Bethlehem Voortrekker High School.

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PW Botha began working for the National Party as a political organiser in the neighbouring Cape Province.

At age 30, PW Botha was elected head of the National Party Youth in 1946, and two years later was elected to the House of Assembly as representative of George in the southern Cape Province in the general election which saw the beginning of the National Party's 46-year tenure in power.

In 1958 PW Botha was appointed Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs by Hendrik Verwoerd, and in 1961 was appointed to the new Department of Coloured Affairs and became Minister of Community Development.

In 1966, PW Botha was appointed Minister of Defence by Verwoerd and served under the government of John Vorster, upon Verwoerd's murder later that year.

When Vorster resigned following allegations of his involvement in the Muldergate Scandal in 1978, PW Botha was elected as his successor by the National Party caucus, besting the electorate's favourite, 45-year-old Foreign Minister Pik PW Botha.

PW Botha was keen to promote constitutional reform, and hoped to implement a form of federal system in South Africa that would allow for greater "self-rule" for black homelands, while still retaining the supremacy of a white central government, and foremost expand the rights of Coloureds and Asians in order to widen support for the government.

From his ascension to the cabinet, PW Botha pursued an ambitious military policy designed to increase South Africa's military capability.

PW Botha sought to improve relations with the West – especially the United States – but with mixed results.

PW Botha argued that the preservation of the apartheid government, though unpopular, was crucial to stemming the tide of African Communism, which had made in-roads into neighbouring Angola and Mozambique after these two former Portuguese colonies obtained independence.

In 1977, as Minister of Defence, PW Botha began a secret nuclear weapons program, which culminated in the manufacture of six nuclear bombs, destroyed only in the early 1990s.

PW Botha remained steadfast in South Africa's administration of neighbouring territory South-West Africa, particularly while there was a presence of Cuban troops in Angola to the north.

PW Botha was responsible for introducing the notorious Koevoet police counter-insurgency unit.

PW Botha was instrumental in building the SADF's strength, adding momentum to establishing units such as 32 Battalion.

In 1983, PW Botha proposed a new constitution, which was then put to a vote of the white population.

PW Botha was elected by an electoral college whose members were elected by the three chambers of the Parliament.

On 14 September 1984, PW Botha was elected as the first state president under the newly approved constitution.

PW Botha relaxed the Group Areas Act, which barred non-whites from living in certain areas.

PW Botha became the first South African government leader to authorise contacts with Nelson Mandela, the imprisoned leader of the African National Congress.

In 1985, PW Botha delivered the Rubicon speech, a policy address in which he refused to give in to demands by the black population, including the release of Mandela.

PW Botha is famously quoted during this time as saying, "This uprising will bring out the beast in us".

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On 16 May 1986, PW Botha publicly warned neighbouring states against engaging in "unsolicited interference" in South Africa's affairs.

Four days later, PW Botha ordered air strikes against selected targets in Lusaka, Harare, and Gaborone, including the offices of exiled ANC activists.

PW Botha denied that he had ever considered black South Africans to be in any way inferior to whites, but conceded that "some" whites did hold that view.

On 18 January 1989, PW Botha suffered a mild stroke which prevented him from attending a meeting with Namibian political leaders on 20 January 1989.

On 2 February 1989, PW Botha resigned as leader of the National Party, anticipating his nominee – finance minister Barend du Plessis – would succeed him.

In March 1989, the NP elected De Klerk as state president but PW Botha refused to resign, saying in a television address that the constitution entitled him to remain in office until March 1990 and that he was even considering running for another five-year term.

However, PW Botha abruptly resigned from the state presidency on 14 August 1989, complaining that he had not been consulted by De Klerk over his scheduled visit to see President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia:.

PW Botha refused to testify at the new government's Truth and Reconciliation Commission, set up to expose apartheid-era crimes and chaired by his cultural and political nemesis, Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

In June 1999, PW Botha successfully appealed to the High Court against his conviction and sentence.

PW Botha died of a heart attack at his home in Wilderness on Tuesday 31 October 2006, aged 90.

PW Botha's death was met with magnanimity by many of his former opponents.

Former President Nelson Mandela was reported as saying "while to many Mr PW Botha will remain a symbol of apartheid, we remember him for the steps he took to pave the way towards the eventual peacefully negotiated settlement in our country".